Report: Hagel called Netanyahu a radical, said Israel was at risk of becoming an apartheid state

posted at 3:21 pm on February 19, 2013 by Allahpundit

Two problems here. Problem one: Like the earlier report when he allegedly said that the State Department is controlled by Israel’s foreign ministry, there’s no hard proof. There’s not even a direct quote. It sounds like him, which isn’t something you can say of most would-be cabinet members, but good luck getting any Democrats to cross Obama and switch their votes based on that.

Kenneth Wagner, who attended the 2010 speech while a Rutgers University law student, provided the Washington Free Beacon with an email he sent during the event to a contact at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The email is time-stamped April 9, 2010, at 11:37 AM.

“I am sitting in a lecture by Chuck Hagel at Rutgers,” Wagner wrote in the email. “He basically said that Israel has violated every UN resolution since 1967, that Israel has violated its agreements with the quartet, that it was risking becoming an apartheid state if it didn’t allow the Palestinians to form a state. He said that the settlements were getting close to the point where a contiguous Palestinian state would be impossible.”

“He said that he [thought] that Netanyahu was a radical and that even [former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi] Livni, who was hard nosed thought he was too radical and so wouldn’t join in a coalition [government] with him. … He said that Hamas has to be brought in to any peace negotiation,” Wagner wrote.

Rather Hagelian, but if you’re willing to support him when we know for a fact he’s referred to the “Jewish lobby,” why wouldn’t you support him after this? It’s not like he was poised to have a warm relationship with Bibi and Israel’s defense ministry until the Rutgers stuff surfaced. Obama’s fully prepared for relations with Israel to be further strained in his second term; he’d have never considered this nomination if he wasn’t. (Worth a presidential medal, don’t you think?) Which brings us to the second problem. Dave Weigel did some googling and discovered that ominous warnings of apartheidism are no bar to cabinet appointments … even in Israel:

I’ve obtained a quote from Hagel saying this in February 2010.

“As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of ­Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”

My mistake! That wasn’t Hagel. That was Ehud Barak, speaking in his capacity as Israel’s defense minister. If we accept the text of the email, Hagel didn’t accuse Israel of being or becoming an apartheid state. Wagner has Hagel saying that Israel risk[ed] becoming an apartheid state if it didn’t allow the Palestinians to form a state, and saying that two months after Israel’s former PM and contemporary defense minister had said it.

A former Democratic president once wrote an entire book on this subject. But then, it’s probably a mistake to view these reports of questionable speeches individually rather than in the aggregate. The point here isn’t to find one single thing that Hagel’s said that’ll instantly disqualify him, it’s to give the Democrats a headache that pounds harder, day by day over the next week, so that when they come back to D.C. they’re ready to purge themselves of this whole business. Makes me wonder, in fact, if Hagel’s opponents aren’t discovering this stuff every few days but rather have a pile of it amassed and are now following a Breitbartian strategy of dribbling it out daily to steadily increase the pressure. All his opponents need, really, is a crack in the dam, just one Democrat to say “enough.” Anyone willing to do that, preferably/possibly a southern Dem up for reelection who wouldn’t mind putting some distance between him/her and The One? Mark Pryor? Mary Landrieu? Anyone?

Read Dan Foster on the two scenarios for the Pentagon if Hagel ends up being confirmed. Either he’ll be an incompetent manager of a White House defense strategy that’s more hawkish than he’d prefer or he’ll be an able spokesman for an incompetent, more dovish White House strategy. Being an eeyore, I can imagine him being an incompetent manager of an incompetent strategy, but who knows? Maybe one of the reasons O wants Hagel is that he expects that he or Netanyahu will have to order an attack on Iran’s nuke facilities in his second term and he wants some political cover from his more dovish SecDef when he does it. Hagel’s “brand” is his chief value to Obama, after all; he’s a Republican stamp of approval on defense cuts. Why wouldn’t he be a paleocon stamp of approval on a war with Iran too?

Update: Touche:

Lay off @daveweigel — I assume he is being sarcastic when he suggests Barak has credibility when it comes to the peace process.

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If this clown gets confirmed, Israel is almost certain to get very aggressive in defending itself. And it will guarantee that we will not be able to protect ourselves because we will be giving away all of our military superiority.

Jugears wants this fool in there so that the F-16s will be given to the Muslim Brotherhood by a GOP.

me wonder, in fact, if Hagel’s opponents aren’t discovering this stuff every few days but rather have a pile of it amassed and are now following a Breitbartian strategy of dribbling it out daily to steadily increase the pressure.

If Hagel were to participate in a re-enactment of Auschwitz taking the role of an SS-Unterscharführer; it would not cause one Democrat Senator to vote against him, and in fact would enhance his credibility with them. They have been ordered to vote for him in lockstep, and if the Führerprinzip still holds anywhere in the world; it is in the Democratic Party.

If your goal is to desroy America than putting such a nutcase in the highest intenational positons is a sure way to accomplish that.
BTW, isn’t it time to put to bed Obama’s lie #247 that he will make the world like us again?

He said that he [thought] that Netanyahu was a radical and that even [former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi] Livni, who was hard nosed thought he was too radical and so wouldn’t join in a coalition [government] with him

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday added his first coalition partner as he works to build a new government, agreeing to bring in a dovish rival to oversee contacts with the Palestinians in what could signal a new approach to peacemaking by the hardline leader.

Under the deal, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will serve as justice minister in the next Israeli government, in charge of peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Maybe there is some merit in letting Obama have the guy, making a strong statement in the Senate about his utter incompetence, but taking the position that the President can have whoever he wants in his cabinet so long as the facts are all known.

And making the point that, if Hagel is incompetent, what does that make the man who appoints him?

[And a footnote, the Pentagon can probably handle Hagel for the rest of Big O's last - thank goodness - term - they've cracked tougher nuts than him.]

—— this passage from Nuremberg Diary by G.M. Gilbert, the American prison psychologist at Nuremberg who wrote the following as part of his account of an interview he did (one of many) with Hermann Goering on April 18, 1946, in Goering’s cell (pp. 278-79):

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

“Why, of course, the people don’t want war,” Goering shrugged. “Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”

“There is one difference,” I pointed out. “In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare war.”

“Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Meanwhile the RINO version of Batman and Robin continue their dog and pony show, trying to convince conservatives they don’t want the “unqualified” Hagel,while refusing to do the one thing necessary to stop him,filibuster him until he withdraws his name.This is all designed to give cover to Lindsey Grahamnesty in his re-election race in 2014.The guy will parade all over South Carolina touting his non-existent conservative credentials byboasting about his role in trying to stop Hagel, and how hawkish he was on Benghazi.What BS-he voted to confirm the traitorous Kerry,gave Clinton a pass on Benghazi, and with a wink and a nod will allow the nomination of the pro- Hagel.